Christmas Wreath From Old Book Pages

 

I love to recycle or re-purpose. I've been doing it my whole life.  I've been wanting to make some crafts from old book pages for some time. These wreaths were fun. 

I've made a few of them now.
  

 The two above are from regular sized paperback pages. Pre-aged.The one below is from an old encyclopaedia annual. The thinner pages allowed more free-formed shapes.

You'll need a foam board, or cardboard for backing, a razor knife, a glue gun, ornaments or natural items like pinecones and nuts, a pencil or stick to keep your fingers from getting burnt pushing the pieces onto the foam, 
and an old book.
 
Find a book you don't want, or get one at a old book store or garage sale. This is a 1985 annual of the encyclopedia. Some of the pages where off white already, but not aged. 

We can take care of that!

Use a razor for hard-backs, just tear out the paperback pages carefully. No need for a razor.
You will need around 60-90 sheets
Boring statistics look fun now! 
I'd like to find some old sheet music.

 

 Here's how I aged the pages:
(If they need it)

While the pages are baking you can cut your foam board.

You could also use a foam wreath, but you'd have no spot for the ornaments later. 

I will get 2 wreaths out of one 20x30 foam board

 

While you are baking and rolling paper you can also enjoy some tea and cake truffles 

(sort of like cake pops without a stick.)

Green, whole leaf tea mit blumen (flowers) from my sweet daughter.

German chocolate cake truffles. Recipe to come for these yummy yummies.

Back to business!

Roll cones, s-shapes, or double roses. Roll everything the same or not. Roll uniformly tight 

or loosey goosey. I made all of mine rounded, but not identical.

I rolled some of my pieces while watching TV.

 As I neared the center I used the double ones as shown above so they would be shorter. Or you can tear them off shorter.

You can draw a circle if you like.
The next ones I made I actually pulled the paper cones further down and so more of the paper was on the board.

 I used the little container to give height to the spot I would glue the ornament cluster. You could use wads of paper glued in there instead. Once you work your way to the center check for spots that need filled in, then start gluing and piling ornaments or pinecones and ornaments into the center area.

 I used a large paperclip for a hanger.

Happy Memorial Day!

Grand Dad E

Papaw D

Military service personnel deserve our respect and gratitude. Pray for someone today who is serving and remember your ancestors who fought to make our country free.

My husband served in the military, so did his father and grandfather. My brother-in-law retired from the military. My uncle served in WWI. Our nephew is serving. My cousin lost her son in Iraq.

We are so blessed we take everything for granted. It may not always be so blessed. Take a look at what's going on in the world and our country and you can see that it probably isn't going to last.
America may have her faults, but there are still hordes of people trying to come here. All you need to do is travel to a few foreign countries to see why.

My honey. What a handsome guy!

Happy Mother's Day!

What an honor and responsibility women and mothers have!


"She watches over the ways of her household,
And does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed;
Her husband also, and he praises her:
' Many daughters have done well,
But you excel them all.'
Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,
But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands,
And let her own works praise her in the gates." - Proverbs 31:27-31

"But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things— that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed." -Titus 2:1-5


The world doesn't reward women who stay at home to raise their families. Who work from home, or do whatever they can to be with their husbands and children.
To the contrary, society would have us believe that motherhood, raising a family and caring for them is somehow demeaning, trivial, and beneath any smart woman.

How we are deceived if we fall for that one! The years pass so quickly. We have to make wise choices now, for when the little ones are grown up where will they have received their world view, their view of God, their view of right and wrong? From the people who love them most and want the best for them, or?

You'd never know

You'd never know it's the season celebrating Jesus by looking for Christmas cards, nativity ornaments, and the like. Now we're supposed to scrub His name out of the holiday itself and say "Happy Holidays".

Well, what is a "holiday"? HOLY DAY, that's were "holiday" comes from. I realize that some of our holidays were dates used in ancient days for pagan, evil, celebrations, but we all know that the early church began combating that with HOLY DAYS of their own. Sad that we may be devolving towards the paganism.

Thanksgiving is for giving thanks to who? The Lord, of course! Then there's Christmas, when we celebrate Jesus' birth, not St. Nicholas, who is celebrated separately on the 6th of December in many counties.

We spent Thanksgiving in southern Ohio with my husband's family. We went to the grocery store where there was already a bell-ringer for the Salvation Army. He said, "Happy Holidays" as I put money in the kettle and was turning to leave. I loudly replied, " AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!" over my shoulder. A lady nearby chuckled, and I said, "Merry Christmas....Christmas.....Christmas!" And we both had a good laugh. Let them just try to stop me from saying Christmas. :)